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Martin Skidmore: I have no idea what he’s going on about, but this is a lively Southern rap number, with autotuned vocals making it even harder to understand. It kind of finds its groove at the start and just sticks with it, every line feeling much like every other line. It has some energy, but it soon bored me.
[4]

Al Shipley: I listen to enough southern rap that I rarely shrug “I have no idea what these guys are saying” and usually regard people who do as squares and herbs, but the extreme consonant-dropping combined with AutoTune make this damn near incoherent to me. It’s at least more spirited and memorable than the Roscoe Dash joints it most resembles, though.
[5]

Ian Mathers: Most of the time, I at least get a kind of bracing thrill out of music that makes me feel old. When I was a teenager I actually wondered what would come along that would cause me to react with the kind of instinctive revulsion my parents’ generation had for most of what I listened to (I never saw 3OH!3 coming), but even the much milder disorientation that something like the digitally-slurred-into-incomprehension chorus of YC’s “Racks” gives me can be kind of neat. I’m not trying to overemphasize how different “Racks” is, because aside from the type of processing it’s been through, it’s really not that far from a lot of what was around when I was at a prime pop cultural age. It’s just that I’m now separated enough from it to have a moment of “oh, is that what the kids like these days?” And unfortunately, that frisson is all that “Racks” really has going for it.
[5]

Chuck Eddy: Kind of monotonous — same theme, repeated over and over and over — but a kind of monotony I don’t think I’ve heard before, and that actually draws me in and feels more open-hearted than most any new hip-hop I’ve heard lately. I get the idea it’s about his car, though that mostly has to do with all the horn-beeping — think he mentions keys and a garage in there somewhere too? Also, these young girls won’t let him be, just like Warren Zevon. Very good chance that I’m missing whatever the point is. But I dig this regardless.
[8]

Zach Lyon: Well, respect to YC for managing to be this anonymous. It almost takes talent to lack any distinguishing features (like talent). The track is nice though; I wouldn’t change the station.
[6]

Asher Steinberg: This just isn’t making the triumphalist grade for me. The sing-song delivery really works for a while, until you realize they’re going to keep singing the same melodic fragment over and over and over. Even the hook isn’t as big as it should be. That said, it’s at least half of the way there to being a pretty great song.
[6]

Mallory O’Donnell: If you’re going to be thunderously repetitive, at least be some kind of hypnotic. “Racks” is, and not because they say “racks” 122 times. Although that helps. I mean, clearly we’re dealing with an abundance of racks here. Racks upon racks, even. But what really sells these particular racks is their ability to make the listener feel like Theo LeSeig driving a pimp wagon. And that, YC, is worth so many of your American racks.
[6]

3 Responses to “YC ft. Future – Racks”

Didn’t get around to this one and was really hoping someone here would have enlightened me as to what the hell this song is about. Catch enough though, if bordering a bit too close to maddening. I was somewhere between a 5 and a 6.